Full of magic, but even more heart.
An unlikely trio sets out on an epic quest to defeat an ancient evil in O’Neill’s debut.
Jenny Greenteeth isn’t a hag, thank you very much, she’s a Jenny! Jennies are water-dwelling magical creatures who all have green skin; long, sharp teeth; and the name “Jenny Greenteeth.” Our Jenny lives in the lake at Chipping Appleby and is quite content keeping her lake neat, eating small creatures, and keeping to herself. But when Temperance Crump is tossed into the lake, sentenced to death for being a witch, Jenny decides to rescue her rather than eat her. Jenny takes Temperance to a hidden cave where she dries out and, after getting over her alarm at meeting a fae creature, tells Jenny her story. Temperance was living happily as the village “cunning woman” when a new parson came to town. This parson whipped up witch fever in the townspeople, and it didn’t take much for them to chain her up and toss her in the lake for her “crimes.” Jenny, who has a daughter of her own (“Little Jenny,” of course), sympathizes with Temperance’s despair at being separated from her husband and two small children and offers to help her cast a spell that will make the whole village forget she was ever a witch, much less executed for her craft. A hobgoblin named Brackus helps Jenny and Temperance find what they need for the spell, but when Temperance attempts to cast it, they learn that the new parson is actually an ancient evil, the Erl King, who could threaten all the magical and mortal creatures of Great Britain. The three of them set off on a noble quest to defeat the Erl King, and on their way, they meet all manner of enchanting and magical creatures and places. But best of all, O’Neill’s story of friendship, family, and perseverance is so sweetly written that even her finely drawn fairy world and excellent plotting take a backseat to the growing bonds among her unlikely heroes.
Full of magic, but even more heart.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780316584241
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Orbit
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
PERSPECTIVES
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.
Using mystery and romance elements in a nonlinear narrative, SenLinYu’s debut is a doorstopper of a fantasy that follows a woman with missing memories as she navigates through a war-torn realm in search of herself.
Helena Marino is a talented young healer living in Paladia—the “Shining City”—who has been thrust into a brutal war against an all-powerful necromancer and his army of Undying, loyal henchmen with immortal bodies, and necrothralls, reanimated automatons. When Helena is awakened from stasis, a prisoner of the necromancer’s forces, she has no idea how long she has been incarcerated—or the status of the war. She soon finds herself a personal prisoner of Kaine Ferron, the High Necromancer’s “monster” psychopath who has sadistically killed hundreds for his master. Ordered to recover Helena’s buried memories by any means necessary, the two polar opposites—Helena and Kaine, healer and killer—end up discovering much more as they begin to understand each other through shared trauma. While necromancy is an oft-trod subject in fantasy novels, the author gives it a fresh feel—in large part because of their superb worldbuilding coupled with unforgettable imagery throughout: “[The necromancer] lay reclined upon a throne of bodies. Necrothralls, contorted and twisted together, their limbs transmuted and fused into a chair, moving in synchrony, rising and falling as they breathed in tandem, squeezing and releasing around him…[He] extended his decrepit right hand, overlarge with fingers jointed like spider legs.” Another noteworthy element is the complex dynamic between Helena and Kaine. To say that these two characters shared the gamut of intense emotions would be a vast understatement. Readers will come for the fantasy and stay for the romance.
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9780593972700
Page Count: 1040
Publisher: Del Rey
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
An engaging, imaginative narrative hampered by its lack of subtlety.
The Medusa myth, reimagined as an Afrocentric, feminist tale with the Gorgon recast as avenging hero.
In mythological Greece, where gods still have a hand in the lives of humans, 17-year-old Medusa lives on an island with her parents, old sea gods who were overthrown at the rise of the Olympians, and her sisters, Euryale and Stheno. The elder sisters dote on Medusa and bond over the care of her “locs...my dearest physical possession.” Their idyll is broken when Euryale is engaged to be married to a cruel demi-god. Medusa intervenes, and a chain of events leads her to a meeting with the goddess Athena, who sees in her intelligence, curiosity, and a useful bit of rage. Athena chooses Medusa for training in Athens to become a priestess at the Parthenon. She joins the other acolytes, a group of teenage girls who bond, bicker, and compete in various challenges for their place at the temple. As an outsider, Medusa is bullied (even in ancient Athens white girls rudely grab a Black girl’s hair) and finds a best friend in Apollonia. She also meets a nameless boy who always seems to be there whenever she is in need; this turns out to be Poseidon, who is grooming the inexplicably naïve Medusa. When he rapes her, Athena finds out and punishes Medusa and her sisters by transforming their locs into snakes. The sisters become Gorgons, and when colonizing men try to claim their island, the killing begins. Telling a story of Black female power through the lens of ancient myth is conceptually appealing, but this novel published as adult fiction reads as though intended for a younger audience.
An engaging, imaginative narrative hampered by its lack of subtlety.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9780593733769
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
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